I'm Janimal, happily gainfully employed Momma to a sweet girl. Livin' it up in Atlanta with a great husband and a good job. Sometimes I make stuff and here's my spot to show it off! Life is good, so I'm sharing....

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

ROBOT Nursery

I am so happy to share our robot nursery today!





There are a few finshing touches to add, but it's mostly done and ready for our new little man arrival! It was SO much fun finding robot decor.


Here is the view from the door.



The furniture is actually a stained dark brown. In these photos the pieces look almost black, but they aren't! I'm just not good with photography! Also, the walls are a lovely pale blue, which doesn't show well in my photos either.

On top of the dresser are some robot toys for Shane to play with 2 soft toys, and a stacking robot toy (all from Amazon.com). There is also a clock and a teeny little robot model our nephew made for the baby (awww). But my favorite piece is the lamp.



Lamp purchased from Amazon.com. I think it's super cool!



Didja check out the curtains?! Made them myself using fabulous I Heart fabric by Rashida Coleman-Jones for Timeless Treasures. (I still need to hem them though!) I also made a matching soft ottoman from the tutorial over at Living With Punks.



You've seen this fabric before! Remember I made a fabric bin with it! It's in the nursery now, holding some toys.



Moving around the room, every nursery needs a comfy glider. There is a matching ottoman, but for some reason we didn't put it in there yet. Huh. It's hard to see the detail, but there is a pretty cool robot quilt over the back of the chair.



Sorry about the glare on this photo, but here is the changing table, with some robot sticker decals above. I LOVE these decals. (from Amazon.com) They are bright and colorful, and you can move the parts around and make the robots look however you like! They seem to stick well and yet remove easily too. Also on the table is a small fabric bin (fabulous Kokka robot fabric) that I made to keep diapers and wipes handy, a little robot bucket for diaper cream and other necessities, and there are two nightlights. I really like how the large robot nightlight has a heart.




Moving around the room again, here's the crib.



The whole robot idea actually started with the three robot models on the left side shelf. My husband got them as gifts and they were on a shelf in the basement. They are pretty much the only robots in the room that aren't appropriate to play with! You can see our video monitor camera, and next to it a solid red robot - which is actually stacked measuring cups for the kitchen! Fun for a little one to play with.
The 4 robots on the bottom are made from wood. The 2 smaller ones are poseable! They look smaller in this pic to me as they are in real life.

The wood robots, kitchen cup robot, AND the robot nightlight, bucket, and clock in the room all came from http://www.tintoyarcade.com/. I stumbled upon their site with a Google search, and imagine my delight in finding out they are a local company. I was THRILLED with my purchases!




And here is a shot of the art above the crib. I fell in love with the I Heart fabric I used in the room, and decided the robots on the fabric would be good on the walls too. So I bought some canvases, and some paints, and did my best to duplicate them. They are somewhat imperfect, but if you don't look too closely, I think they're ok! Of course they are hung pretty high from the crib, safe from little hands.



So there you have it! The robot nursery! I still need to hang a window shade, hem the curtains, and add some other details. We bought a a robot 3D pic from a local artist that has a voice bubble from the robot that is a dry erase board!


Thanks for stopping by. It was fun to put this room together and it was fun to show it off. And soon it will be fun to bring home it's occupant!


Later Skater,




Janimal


P.S.


I have a tutorial in the works for the curtains!



















Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Fabric Bin Tutorial

Hello! I am so happy to share with you a tutorial for making a fabric bin today!

We have a robot theme going in our new nursery and I just fell in love with the I Heart fabric from Timeless Treasures that was designed by Rashida Coleman-Jones. (Purchased at Whipstitch Fabrics) This lovely fabric came in cotton, and also a lovely cotton/linen blend that has a lovely weight I enjoyed working with very much!

Pretty soon I will be able to share photos from the finished nursery. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this little sneak peek at the decor, and this tutorial.

And oh yeah, we picked a name for our new baby - check it out!





This fabric bin will either store baby toys on the floor. Nice and soft for the baby to access. Or, we'll use it to store diapers next to the changing pad. I have other fabric bins too, so now I just need to figure out where they go!

To start, I cut five 10' by 10' squares of the outer fabric and some interfacing. I used a medium stiffness interfacing. I considered using fusible fleece but I didn't have enough on hand. If you have batting, that would work too.




Next I laid out the fabric pieces, with a piece of the interfacing on top. (this is when I realized fusible interfacing might make this a bit easier.) Because the robot fabric is directional, it's important to get the layout correct so each side has robots that aren't upside down! The arrows here show how to layout the fabric.







Ok, the layout is good. Now I must sew each panel in place. I pinned the center piece to a side piece first.









This was sewn together with a half inch seam. VERY IMPORTANT - start and end sewing a half inch before each side.






I sewed two opposite sides first.







Now the other two sides, and this is why that half inch space in sewing is important. If you sew with a half inch space again, you should have a perfect corner.







Now it's time to sew each of the side panels together. It was tough for me to get a picture of this. Basically, if you fold the bottom panel into sort of a triangle, it's a bit easier to put the side panels together to sew.







Once all the sides are sewn, you have something that is starting to resemble a box!












I pressed each side seam open, and if I had been thinking properly, I would have trimmed the seam down to a quarter inch. So do as I say, not as I do, and trim that seam!








The lining of the fabric bin is constructed almost exactly the same way, except leaving a space between a side and bottom panel for turning.







These seams were pressed open also.










OK - It's the home stretch! Now insert the lining into the outer box, right sides together. Pushing into each corner and lining up each side seam.











I started with a pin in each corner, lining up the seams, and a pin between each corner to keep the lining in place









Then sew around the top with a half inch seam.














My favorite part - turning! Use the gap in the bottom of the lining to pull the fabric bin right sides out!







Ta-Dah!







A good press around the top and look - it's a fabric bin! You can top stitch around the top at this point, but I didn't. The turning gap in the lining can be handstitched closed at your leisure!











I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I am pretty excited about our robot themed room and am looking forward to sharing pics of it. Please stop back by!






Later Skaters,



Janimal